KitKat mandates that certain sensor algorithms and tasks be offloaded from the power-hungry application processor to enable new sensor-driven use cases without compromising battery life. QuickLogic’s ultra-low power sensor hub solution supports all of the mandated KitKat features on the device, including step count and detection, significant motion detection, game and geomagnetic rotation vectors, and batched events. The unique processing architecture of the QuickLogic solution enables these features at power consumption less than 1% of a typical smartphone battery.

The device will autonomously manage and sample data from multiple sensors including the typical 9-axis motion sensors (accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope), as well as other sensors such as ambient light, temperature, pressure, etc. The device also contains Sensor Platform Inc’s “FreeMotion” library, which includes a context change detector, diversity check, and step counter.

This off-the-shelf solution enables OEMs to immediately integrate best-in-class context awareness and motion sensor fusion algorithms into their devices quickly. By offloading the context change detection to the QuickLogic solution, the application processor is kept asleep longer, and only woken when the sensor hub detects a change in context. This enables the most power-efficient architecture.

The KitKat-compliant solution supports all commonly-used sensors in mobile devices such as Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Pressure, Ambient Light and Proximity.